Ales SVATOS, Ivan HRDÝ, and Irena VALTEROVÁ
Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Prague 6, 166 10
Czech Republic
An identification and quantification of cuticular hydrocarbons (CH) in Prorhinotermes simplex, Hagen termite colony maintained in our laboratory was persuaded. The principal goal was to establish if CH serve as a key factor for nestmate and casts recognitions.
Preliminary investigation of hexane washes using GC/MS showed that they consist mostly of linear or branched hydrocarbons, monoenes and unusually high proportion of conjugated dienes (see Fig.). Those dienes were chemically characterized by retention order, chemical ionization, and microozonolyzis. These data showed position of double bonds. Detailed analyses of hexane extracts Using GC-MS and GC-FTIR techniques were used to suggested stereochemistry of carbon-carbon double bonds in unsaturated compounds. The position and the geometry of conjugated dienes was proved by chemical synthesis.
Qualitative and quantitative differetlces and variations across different casts arid developing stages showed only small deviations and from chemical analysis itself we are not able to answer if HC are used by P. simplex for casts recognition.